Credit

Caption

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), French military engineer who revolutionized the art of siege craft and was responsible for the fortification of over 160 places in France. He fought in all the French wars during the reign of Louis XlV (1643–1715) His revolution of siege warfare was shown at the siege of Maastricht in 1673, with the success of his methods of attack employing the tactic of parallel trenches which were dug parallel or concentric to the perimeter of the defences and connected by radical zig-zag trenches. This made the attackers' approach comparatively safe from the defenders’ artillery fire and became the standard method of attacking a fortress for the next two centuries. His ideas and techniques were widely adopted internationally.